Flickers of a good story try to emerge: the notion that the demon is playing a
long game and operates independently of time and space. That the scientific
apparatus and investigation into Fr Merrin's death are cunning traps. That
Regan remembers her possession and is fighting an unseen battle against the
demon.

These hints can't overcome all the problems. It's slow and boring, with none
of the deep tone of spiritual menace and loathsomeness of the original. They
try to substitute insectoid horror but it's not the same. The plot barely
hangs together and the action finale makes no sense. They are forever messing
with the mind-meld apparatus and introduce an element of cuteness which is
fatal to this type of story.

Talking out the plot is bad in both books and in film. And there is something
extra cheap-looking about most 1970s horror. I don't know what it is:
lighting, color, film, sets? (See early Cronenberg) Dubbing also makes the
film seem cheap when the voices and footsteps come from some dead studio
space.

I don't know if it was meant to be funny, but the heretic priest taking the
adolescent girl to a shabby hotel for their "experiments" gave me a chuckle.